News

News Archive

2026

  • 1/2026: Our recent paper published in Communications Chemistry (read it here) has been selected in the 2025 Editors’ Highlights Collection. Thanks a lot to Dr Victoria Richards for assisting with the editorial process and Dr. Felipe García for highlighting our work!

2025

  • 12/2025: Fabs gives an invited talk at Pacifichem 2025, as part of the Frontiers and New Horizons in Molecular f-Element Chemistry seminar. Huge thanks to Prof. Peter Junk and Prof. Jerome Robinson for the kind invitation and for organising a great event.
  • 12/2025: Fabs gives an invited talk at the Tokyo Institute of Science. Huge thanks to Prof. Yamashita for the great hospitality!
  • 12/2025: Fabs gives an invited talk at the first Materials Science of Electride and Floating Electron System symposium, as part of the Materials Research Meeting 2025 in Yokohama (Japan). Huge thanks to Prof. Hosono and Prof. Matsuishi for the kind invitation.
  • 09/2025: Shifaa Xec Daudo (PhD), Chenyang Kan (PhD) and Sukhdip Singh (MChem) join the group. Welcome everyone!
  • 09/2025: Aaisha Jagot and Jake Oliver join the group for a 2-week placement, in collaboration with colleagues from the School of Geology, Geography and the Environment. Some fantastic work as part of this project, well done Aaisha and Jake!
  • 06/2025: New group paper out now in Communications Chemistry, work led by Matthew and Archie, in collaboration with Daniel Reta and Luis Lezama (UPV, Spain). Great work everyone!
  • 06/2025: Fabs gives an invited seminar at the University of Birmingham. Thanks Erli and co. for the great hospitality!
  • 04/2025: Fabs and Elias attend Dalton 2025 – Fabs gives a talk and Elias presents a poster. Thanks to the organisers for putting together a fantastic meeting!
  • 03/2025: Shifaa completes her MChem project in the lab and hands in her dissertation. Shifaa has also secured an EPSRC DLA PhD studentship and will be joining the group again in September. Double congratulations Shifaa!
  • 03/2025: Fabs gives an invited seminar at ShanghaiTech University. Great to connect again with Prof. Huan-Ming Huang and learn about the great science happening at ShanghaiTech. Thanks to all!
  • 03/2025: Fabs gives an invited seminar at Fudan University. Special thanks to Prof. Lixin Zhang for the fantastic hospitality!
  • 02/2025: Archie finishes his PDRA in the group and moves to Chemnitz to work with Prof. Robert Kretschmer. Good luck Archie, you will be missed!

2024

  • 12/2024: New preprint published in ChemRxiv covering work led by Matthew and and Archie, in collaboration with Luis Lezama and Dani Reta at UPV (Spain). Well done everyone!
  • 12/2024: New group paper published in Molecules covering work led by Elias, with some help from Alex and Archie and in collaboration with Ben Réant from Manchester. Well done Elias!
  • 11/2024: New group paper published in Inorganic Chemistry covering work led by Alex and Archie, with some help from Matthew for DFT calculations. Well done everyone!
  • 10/2024: New group paper published in JACS covering work led by Alex in collaboration with teams at the University of Manchester, Newcastle University, University of Bath and University of Birmingham. Well done Alex!
  • 9/2024: Shifaa Xec Daudo joins the group for her final year MChem project. Welcome Shifaa!
  • 9/2024: Fabs and Elias attend the Terrae Rarae 2024 meeting in Stuttgart and both present some of the group’s work. A fantastic meeting, thanks a lot to the organiser for a great conference!
  • 9/2024: Archie attends the EPR Workshop at the EPR National Research Facility in Manchester. Thanks a lot to the organisers for a fantastic workshop!
  • 9/2024: Fabs and Elias attends the MIDs meeting at Nottingham Trent University. Elias is a runner-up for the best poster prize – well done Elias!
  • 9/2024: Fabs attends MICRA2024 in Leicester and gives a talk on some of the group’s work.
  • 7/2024: New preprint published on Research Square covering work led by Alex, in collaboration with teams at the University of Manchester, Newcastle University, University of Bath and University of Birmingham.
  • 7/2024: Elias wins a prize for best poster at the University of Leicester Chemistry Postgraduate Symposium. Well done Elias!
  • 6/2024: New group paper led by Matt published in Polyhedron as part of a special issue dedicated to Rab Mulvey. Well done everyone!
  • 6/2024: Fabs becomes Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
  • 5/2024: New paper published in JACS covering work led by David Mills, Floriana Tuna (University of Manchester) and Bill Evans (UC Irvine) on pulsed EPR spectroscopy on divalent lanthanide Cp complexes.
  • 5/2024: Alex has passed his PhD viva with flying colours – well done Dr Bowles!
  • 4/2024: Sam Dearman has joined the group as a PDRA. Welcome to the group Sam!
  • 4/2024: Fabs and Alex attended the RSC Main Group Meeting in Birmingham, where Alex also presented a poster on his mechanochemistry work.
  • 3/2024: Ayse and Harvey have completed their MChem project and have submitted their final year reports. Well done both!
  • 3/2024: New paper published in Dalton Transactions from a collaboration with Rama Suntharalingam at Leicester.
  • 3/2024: Fabs gives an invited talk at the Dalian University of Technology. Thanks a lot to Yinshan Meng for the great hospitality!
  • 2/2024: New paper published in ACS Catalysis, from work led by Alex Pulis at Leicester.
  • 1/2024: New paper published in Chemical Science covering work led by David Mills, Eric McInness, Floriana Tuna (University of Manchester) on pulsed EPR spectroscopy on trivalent lanthanide Cp complexes.
  • 1/2024: Yusuf Rivers has joined the group for his MSc research project. Welcome Yusuf!

2023

  • 10/2023: New paper published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, from a collaboration with Antonio Zucca and Sergio Stoccoro (Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italy).
  • 10/2023: New paper published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, covering work led by David Mills (University of Manchester) on divalent lanthanide complexes. The paper has been select as Very Important Paper by the journal.
  • 9/2023: Ayse Murad and Harvey Thompson have joined the group for their final 4th year MChem project. Welcome both!
  • 8/2023: Elias attends the DYME conference in Birmingham and presents a poster.
  • 7/2023: Fabs is promoted to Associate Professor. Thanks to all group members past and present for all their work in the last four years!
  • 6/2023: Fabs is featured in the Channel 4 production Air fryers – are they worth it?.
  • 6/2023: New group paper published in Chemistry – A European Journal – see previous ChemRxiv article here. Work led by Alex, in collaboration with Claire McMullin (Bath) and Inigo Vitorica (Manchester). Well done everyone!
  • 6/2023: New paper published in Chemistry – A European Journal in collaboration with Rama Suntharalingam – thanks Rama for the collaboration!
  • 5/2023: Preprint published in ChemRxiv describing a blueprint for the stabilisation of subvalent heavy Group 2 complexes. Work led by Alex and in collaboration with Claire McMullin (Bath) and Inigo Vitorica (Manchester). Well done everyone!
  • 4/2023: The group attends the Dalton 2023 conference. Alex and Fabs give oral contributions, whilst Archie and Matthew present posters. Matthew is also one of the winners of the Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson Prize for best poster presentation – congratulations Matthew!
  • 4/2023: The group attends the inaugural Midlands Inorganic Discussions meeting in Warwick and Matthew gives an oral contribution.
  • 4/2023: Fabs is awarded an RSC Outreach grant to run a Chemistry Summer School at the University of Leicester.
  • 3/2023: Matthew attends the 19th BCA/CCG Intensive Teaching School in X-ray Structure Analysis in Durham.
  • 3/2023: Ajay and Becky finish their MChem projects and hand in their dissertations. Well done both of you!
  • 3/2023: Matthew passes his viva voce with flying colours and is the first PhD student to graduate from the group. Thanks to Prof. Rab Mulvey and Dr Sandy Kilpatrick for doing the honours. Well done Dr Stevens!
  • 3/2023: Alex, Archie, Elias and Matthew have all been awarded RSC travel bursaries to attend Dalton 2023 in Warwick. Well done everyone!
  • 1/2023: Alex attends the EPR workshop at the EPR National Research Facility in Manchester. Thanks to Prof. David Collison for the opportunity!


2022

  • 9/2022: Archie and Matthew attend XXXI Terrae Rarae in Leipzig and Matthew gives a talk.
  • 9/2022: Elias Alexopoulos (PhD), Ajay Khela (MChem) and Becky Sheppard (MChem) have joined the group – for Becky this is a comeback! Welcome everyone!
  • 9/2022: Fabs gives a talk at MICRA2022 in Durham. Thanks to James Walton for the organisation and fantastic hospitality!
  • 8/2022: Becky has finished her summer placement in the group (with three new crystal structures). Well done Becky!
  • 8/2022: Archie has been awarded an RSC travel bursary to attend Terrae Rarae XXXI in Leipzig. Well done!
  • 7/2022: Hannah receives a Head of School Honourable Mention for her MChem project. Fantastic work Hannah, well done!
  • 7/2022: Matthew presents a poster and Alex gives a talk at ICOMC in Prague. Well done both!
  • 7/2022: New group paper published in Molecules! Work led by Matthew in collaboration with Inigo Vitorica (Manchester) and Lia Sotorrios (Heriot-Watt).
  • 7/2022: First research paper from the group published in Dalton Transactions! Work led by Matthew in collaboration with Inigo Vitorica (Manchester), Stuart Macgregor and Lia Sotorrios (Heriot-Watt). Congratulations everyone!
  • 6/2022: Becky Sheppard has joined the group for her RSC-funded summer placement. Welcome Becky!
  • 5/2022: Alex and Matthew have been awarded travel bursaries from the RSC to attend ICOMC in Prague. Well done both!
  • 5/2022: Hannah and Kale have finished their MChem projects. Thank you both for all the hard work and best of luck with the future!
  • 4/2022: New paper published in Australian Journal of Chemistry from PDRA work with Dave Mills in Manchester, as part of a special issue in honour of Prof. Glen Deacon’s 85th birthday. Happy birthday Glen!
  • 3/2022: Alex, Archie and Matthew attend the ‘Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson: An anniversary celebration’ symposium at Burlington House, London.
  • 2/2022: Yu (Archie) Liu has joined the group as an EPSRC-funded PDRA. Welcome Archie!
  • 2/2022: New review article published in Chemical Reviews on ‘Rare Earth Starting Materials and Methodologies for Synthetic Chemistry’.
  • 1/2022: Fabs gives an invited seminar at the University of York – thanks to Dr Luke Wilkinson for the kind invitation and hospitality!

2021

  • 11/2021: New paper published in Inorganics from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 11/2021: Yuqing (Alex) Shao has joined the group on a CSC PhD scholarship. Welcome Yuqing!
  • 10/2021: Hannah Redmill and Kale Cooke have joined the group for their final year MChem projects. Welcome both!
  • 8/2021: New paper published in JACS from PDRA work on uranyl(V) photoluminescence done with Dr Louise Natrajan (Manchester) and in collaboration with Prof. Henry La Pierre (Georgia Tech), Prof. Karsten Mayer (Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Dr Andrew Kerridge (Lancaster).
  • 7/2021: New paper published in Inorganica Chimica Acta from a collaboration with Prof. Debashis Ray (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur – India).
  • 7/2021: Matthew, Alex and Fabs attend the Dalton 2021 Joint Interest Group meeting. Matthew and Alex present posters. Thanks a lot to the organisers for a fantastic event!
  • 6/2021: Fabs is one of the recipients of the 2021 Dalton Division Horizon Prize as part of the Molecular Magnetism Team.
  • 6/2021: Emily has finished her MChem project – best of luck with your future endeavours!
  • 5/2021: New preprint published on ChemRxiv on uranyl(V) luminescence, from PDRA work with Dr Louise Natrajan (Manchester) and in collaboration with Prof. Henry La Pierre (Georgia Tech), Prof. Karsten Mayer (Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Dr Andrew Kerridge (Lancaster).
  • 3/2021: New paper published in Dalton Transactions, from a collaboration with teams from the University of Sassari (Sardinia, Italy), ICIQ (Spain) and Warwick on Pd(II) and Pt(II) chemistry.
  • 2/2021: The group has been awarded a Royal Society Research Grant to study Ce photocatalysis.

2020

  • 12/2020: Matthew’s review on Rare Earth alkylidene chemistry is published in Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry vol. IV. Well done Matthew! (doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-820206-7.00002-0)
  • 09/2020: Alex Bowles (PhD) returns to the lab for his PhD studies, and Emily Spray (MChem) joins the team for her final year research project. Welcome both!
  • 04/2020: Sara and Alex finish their projects in the lab; Alex is awarded an EPSRC DTP studentship and will be joining the team again in September.
  • 04/2020: New paper published in Dalton Transactions from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 04/2020: New perspective article on collaborative work in the field of molecular magnetism, in collaboration with Conrad Goodwin (Los Alamos) and Dani Reta (Manchester).
  • 04/2020: New paper published in Chemical Communications from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 03/2020: New paper published in Chemistry – A European Journal from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester, in collaboration with Rodolphe Clerac (Bordeaux).
  • 03/2020: New paper published in Physical Review B from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 03/2020: Alex has finished his MChem project in the lab – good luck with your future endeavours!
  • 03/2020: New preprint on collaborative work in molecular magnetism, in collaboration with Conrad Goodwin (Los Alamos) and Dani Reta (Manchester).
  • 01/2020: Sara Pischedda (PhD) has joined the group for her Erasmus+ placement. Welcome Sara!

2019

  • 11/2019: New preprint published in ChemRxiv from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 10/2019: New paper in collaboration with teams from the University of Sassari and University of Cagliari (Sardinia, IT) on gold(I)-alkene complexes published in European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry.
  • 09/2019: Matthew Stevens (PhD) and Alex Bowles (MChem) have joined the group. Welcome both!
  • 06/2019: New review article written with David Mills on low-coordinate f-element chemistry, published as part of the Handbook on the Physics and Chemistry of Rare Earths. 
  • 06/2019: Fabs moves into his new office at the Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester!
  • 05/2019: New paper published in Dalton Transactions from PDRA work with David Mills and Nick Chilton at Manchester.
  • 04/2019: New paper published in Chemistry – A European Journal from PDRA work with David Mills at Manchester.
  • 02/2019: Fabs will join the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leicester as a Lecturer in June!
  • 02/2019: PhD studentship available to join our group in September 2019.

In the press